1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a latch for maintaining the closed state of an automobile door. More particularly it relates to a structure for connecting an opening rod to an opening lever in such a latch.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior art latch for an automobile door as disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,519 includes a latch body in which a latching member, a ratchet to hold the latching member and a release lever to release the hold of the latching member by the ratchet are mounted relative to a frame and a release rod for use in releasing the latch from outside the automobile. One end of the release rod is connected to the release lever through a pin. Namely the axial portion of the pin headed at one end thereof is inserted in a slot formed in the release lever and the extreme end of the axial portion is inserted in a hole formed in the release rod to be fixed therein by caulking.
The door latch of this type including the latch body with the attached long release rod becomes very bulky. When a number of door latches each carrying a lanky release rod are transported in a package, it is bulky as well. As a result, the transportation of latches is very expensive.
In order to lower the transportation cost of latches it may be possible to transport the latch together with the release rod which is not yet connected to the release lever of the latch body. It is possible, with the unconnected release rod, to pack up a number of latch bodies, each being of small bulk into one compact package. A number of release rods, each being lanky, can be bundled into another small package as well. Consequently the bulk of the above two packages is much smaller than the bulk of the package containing a number of completely assembled latches.
Each of the unconnected release rods, however, must be connected to the release lever of the latch body at the place to which they have been transported. The connecting work takes considerable time. The axial portion of the connection pin is first passed through the slot in the release lever and then the extreme end of the pin is inserted in the hole of release rod. Under this situation of connecting both component members are apt to be easily separated from each other. It is, therefore, necessary to caulk the inserted extreme end of the pin in the hole of the release rod. The latch body is heavy and the release rod is long, so these members are unwieldy and hard to connect. A special large-scale jig is required in order that the caulking work can be carried out with the latch body and the release rod supported stabily.